I'll have a Great Christmas Without You
by TheCheeseStandsAlone
Summary: Lily and James are in their seventh year and have a converstaion about Christmas. Strange songs, howlers, pictures, chess games and bets. rr!


Lily Evans sat down in the Gryffindor common room as far away from James Potter as humanly possible without being outside the portrait hole. There was only one more week until Christmas vacation and she could hardly stand to wait that long.  
  
"Hello Evans," Lily looked up from her book, "The Secret Garden" and groaned. Just the person she didn't want to see was standing over here ginning like a manic.  
  
"What did you do now Potter?" she snapped and she shut her book with a little more force than was necessary. He just shrugged and sat down beside her on the red couch with over stuffed arms.  
  
"Nothing, just wanted to say hello to my favorite flower." She gave him a death glare. "Are you staying here for Christmas?" he asked conversationally, but she wasn't about to have a polite conversation with him, after all he did get her a detention for disrupting charms class with their arguing.  
  
"Depends." She said shortly, still glaring at him.  
  
"On what?"  
  
"You, of course," she said as though it was the easiest thing in the world to guess.  
  
"Oh, now I feel special. But really, what are you doing?" he asked, still trying to have a conversation with her.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to answer questions with questions?" he snapped.  
  
"No, she didn't." she said coldly, "Obviously yours didn't either."  
  
"Ah, my mum doesn't care what I do." He said sitting back again.  
  
"Obviously," Lily muttered under her breath opening her book again. There were a few seconds of silence and then she looked up. "What are you still doing here?"  
  
"Waiting for you to answer my question." He said, looking at her expectantly.  
  
"I did."  
  
"Not that one, the other one."  
  
"What other one?"  
  
"Evans, good lord, your impossible to even talk to!" James exclaimed standing up. At that she smiled sweetly up at him.  
  
"I'm staying here, your highness."  
  
"Your highness, I like the sounds of that." he sat back down.  
  
"I thought you were leaving."  
  
"No, I decided to stay and keep you company."  
  
"Goody." She closed her book again.  
  
"Chess?"  
  
"Fine. But I'm not going to like it," She said, following him over to the nearest empty chess board.  
  
"Of course you will." He said grinning at her across the board as he set up his chess pieces. She rolled her eyes and moved her first piece.  
  
"I have to say, Potter that was the best chess game I've ever played. Either that or you really stink at this game." Lily grinned as she dumped the chess pieces back in the box.  
  
"Shut up," he muttered doing the same. He glanced down at his watch. "We've got detention Evans. Let's go before Flitch hangs you by your pretty manicured nails." Lily looked down at her nails.  
  
"They aren't manicured you idiot. They just have clear nail polish on them to keep them from breaking."  
  
"Whatever, same difference," he said waving his hand dismissively. "What do you have to do?"  
  
Lily pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket. "Um, clean telescopes in the Astronomy tower and you?"  
  
"I get the joy of going out into the Forbidden forest and picking some random plant or another with sprout."  
  
"Be careful." She said, and then realizing she said it, added quickly. "I want to beat you one more time in chess before you die."  
  
He looked at her critically after catching the pause when she was talking. "Yeah, I'm sure you do."  
  
"Don't push your luck Potter. Anyway, I go this way. See you later, unless the werewolves get you!"  
  
"It's not a full moon, moron." He said, turning to go the opposite direction from her. He ran a hand threw his already messy hair and swore loudly when it got caught on a particularly nasty knot.  
  
"Ah, you'll be helping another half hour for that one, won't ya?" Sprout said when he turned the corner.  
  
"Guess so," James said shrugging. He pulled his cloak tighter around him as they made their way out into the forest. He'd been in there many times, but hardly ever as himself. Before the trees got too thick, he glanced back at the school, a light in the highest tower was on, and he could just see the outline of a person against the light.  
  
"Potter, watch it! You almost stepped on it!" Sprout scolded a few minutes later when they were walking.  
  
"Sorry Professor. I guess I was just in my own land for a minute."  
  
"A minute you say. More like a half hour if you ask me." She glared at him as she picked the plat and threw it in the bag he was holding.  
  
He just hoped Lily wasn't having as awful of a time as he was. He mentally kicked himself for thinking that, of course he wanted her to be having an awful time. It was, after all, partly her fault he was out there.  
  
Lily and James avoided each other like normal for the rest of the week. On Friday, the day before James was leaving for home, Lily approached him with a small package.  
  
"Here, you can't open it until Christmas though. If you don't wait, you'll regret it." She smiled a sickeningly sweet smile and walked off with her friend.  
  
James looked curiously at the package. The red envelope looked a lot like a howler, but if couldn't be. It would have to go off before Christmas. And the other, a white envelop looked like it contained a card or a letter. But why would she ever give him a card or letter?  
  
He put that thought in the back of his mind and went up to his dorm where the rest of the Marauder's were packing to go home as well.  
  
"Whatcha got there, Prongs?" Remus asked when he saw the bright red envelope in his friend's hand.  
  
"Donno, I'm not aloud to open it until Christmas though." He said shrugging as he put it in his trunk.  
  
"Well, you gunna tell us who gave it to you at least?" Peter asked looking critically at the two envelopes. "That one looks like a howler." He said pointing to the red one.  
  
"That's what I thought too, but it can't be, it would have to go off before it'd have a change to open it." James said. "And they're from Evans."  
  
"Oh" said Sirius. "It's a howler." He said as he snapped his trunk closed and flopped down on his bed. James just shrugged and did the same.  
  
James woke up on Christmas morning to his house elf shaking him and saying. "Master, it is Christmas master. I was told to wake young master potter up."  
  
He groaned and got up. "Thanks." He said as he pulled on a robe and headed for the door. Then he stopped and turned back toward the small elf, who looked terrified like he had done something wrong. "Happy Christmas!" James said and then he went downstairs to see bunches of gifts under the tree.  
  
The day went by in a blur of food, gifts, and family popping up unexpectedly. By the end of the day, Lily's gift was pushed to the back of his mind, and eventually forgotten until his owl showed up with a letter for him.  
  
Potter,  
  
Happy Christmas! How'd you like my gifts? I thought they were quite lovely myself. Hope you got some good stuff. Now I have to go and have some fun, by the way, Andie says "Hi" and that she hopes you liked it. She did help you know.  
  
Happy Christmas  
  
Evans and Andie  
  
He smiled to himself and opened his trunk. Under his sloppily folded invisibility cloak were the two envelopes. For the first time he noticed writing on them. The red one said open first, so he reached down, mentally assuring himself it wasn't a howler.  
  
He was very wrong.  
  
I'll have a great Christmas with out you, decorations of white, stained red with blood, don't mean a thing unless the bloods yours. Happy Christmas Potter. Hope yours is as great as mine, although I doubt it as you can't very well get away from yourself.  
  
He grinned and shook his head slightly trying to make his ears stop ringing. Then he reached for the next envelope. When he opened it a picture fell out. Lily had her hair in braided pig tails and a pair of reindeer antlers on her head. She stuck out her tongue at him and then held up a sign that read "Lyrics by Andie and Evans! Hoped ya liked it. We worked hard on that."  
  
He laughed quietly to himself and put the picture on his bedside table. He did have a great Christmas, and that just made it all the more better. He fell asleep, thinking of the various ways to get back at Lily Evans, even though he knew he never would.  
  
When he returned from Christmas Break, things between them had changed. They had nightly chess matches, Lily winning every single one of them, and James complaining about how she had to be cheating. Lily would laugh, put away her pieces and say "Well Potter, I'm going to bed. All this kicking your butt has got me exhausted."  
  
Then he'd say "Care if I join you?" and then she'd slap him, only every night, the slap got lighter and lighter, and soon, she just began rolling her eyes.  
  
"If I win this game, you have to go out with me." He said grinning. She thought this over in her head, and then agreed to his terms. "And if I win," she said, "you can never ask me out again."  
  
A half hour later, James was jumping around chanting "I beat you, I beat you!" Lily couldn't help but smile when he grabbed her arms and started to dance her around the common room.  
  
"I let you win." Lily whispered a few minutes later after he calmed down.  
  
"Did not,"  
  
"Wanna bet?"  
  
"fine. If I win, you still have to go out with me."  
  
"And If I win, you can never be me to go out with you again."  
  
Lily won this chess match, and James was slightly put out by that.  
  
When he was on his way up to bed Lily called him back down. "Hey, Potter, come here."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You know, I never said anything about asking." His grin got about ten times brighter. "So, Evans, What do you say, me, you, three broomsticks tomorrow night?"  
  
"Sounds good Potter, now good night." She kissed his cheek and then started heading for the stair case, James following shortly after.  
  
"You know, I still say you didn't let me win."  
  
"Good night Potter."  
  
"Good night Lily."  
  
a/n: Um, I'm not sure why I ever thought of this, I think it turned out kind of cute. I didn't really plan on it to turn out this way, but hey, its better than I planned. Let me know what you think. 


End file.
